The Lyondell Basell Houston refinery in Houston, Texas, pictured on June 14, 2024. Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesLondonReuters —
Global demand for oil and natural gas could grow until 2050, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday, departing from previous expectations of a speedy transition to cleaner fuels following US
criticism of its climate focus.
The IEA also predicted in its annual outlook that the world would likely fail to meet its goal to cap the rise in temperatures to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change.
The Paris-based energy security watchdog has been under pressure from the United States for a shift in recent years toward a focus on clean energy policies as President Donald Trump called on American companies to expand oil and gas production.
During the Biden administration, the IEA predicted that global oil demand would peak this decade and said there should be an end to investment in new oil, gas and coal projects if the world wanted to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.
‘Peak oil’
Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright has called the IEA’s demand peak projections “nonsensical.” The agency is funded by member countries, with the US the largest contributor.
In its World Energy Outlook published Wednesday, the IEA predicted that under a “current policies scenario” oil demand would hit 113 million barrels per day by mid-century, up around 13% from 2024 consumption.
The scenario – which the IEA first used in 2019 before switching to one more in line with a clean energy transition – is based on existing government policies and not aspirations to achieve climate goals.
IEA head Fatih Birol said on a press call the scenario had been restored to reflect differing choices governments were making about energy.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has previously disputed peak oil demand forecasts.
“We hope… we have passed the peak in the misguided notion of ‘peak oil.’” OPEC said on its website Wednesday.
In the IEA’s “stated policies scenario,” which considers proposed but not necessarily adopted policies, oil demand peaks around 2030.
The agency says its scenarios explore a range of possible outcomes under various sets of assumptions and are not forecasts.
LNG capacity to soar
Final investment decisions for new liquefied natural gas projects have surged in 2025, the report noted. Operations for about 300 billion cubic meters of new annual LNG export capacity will start by 2030, marking a 50% increase in available supply.
Based on the current policies scenario, the global LNG market increases from around 560 bcm in 2024 to 880 bcm in 2035 and to 1,020 bcm in 2050, driven by rising power sector demand fueled by data center and artificial intelligence growth.
Global investment in data centers is expected to reach $580 billion in 2025, the report said, noting that if achieved this would surpass the $540 billion a year spent globally on oil supply.
The report includes a scenario describing a pathway to reduce global energy emissions to net zero by 2050.
More than 190 countries pledged at the Paris climate talks in 2015 to try to keep the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But the report shows the world surpassing that in all scenarios.
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